A Lesson Before Dying
The film “A lesson before dying” is about the relationship and lives of two men who are unexpectedly and reluctantly brought together. Grant Wiggins and Jefferson are the film’s two protagonists. Although, they show no signs of cooperation and similarities at first, they form a bond of friendship and trust in between them and through which both of them learn lessons regarding life, love, responsibility and freedom, and the people who mean the most for them.
Jefferson is a young African American man who is wrongly convicted of a store owner’s and two of his companions’ murders at the wrong place and at the wrong time. Unsurprisingly, he is hastily and doubtfully convicted of the murders. In an effort to avoid the death penalty, Jefferson’s attorney points to the fact that he is an illiterate person and calls him a “hog”. He states that executing Jefferson would be like “strapping a hog to the electric chair”. However, the jury rules against Jefferson and affirms his execution. On the contrary, this has a drastic and deep impact on Jefferson due to which his life immediately becomes dull at this point and stops communicating at all. Eventually, he starts to believe in his worthlessness and inhumanity and because of his attorney’s remark, he sees himself as a worthless beast.
Grant Wiggins, on the other hand is a teacher and an educated man. Therefore, he sees himself as superior to people like Jefferson and other uneducated people in his community. Unlike Jefferson, Grant has had numerous opportunities to desert far away and change his life, but he has decided to stay and teach in the church because he feels that as a black man living in a racist white world, he has little or no control over his life. He helplessly refuses to challenge the community system that keeps him in a state of mental slavery. Instead, he keeps his rage and vents his pain in himself, breaking himself down.
Mr. Wiggins is asked by his aunt Tante Lou...
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